IEBC trains election managers – Daily Nation

The electoral agency has rolled out a detailed training plan for its 47 county election managers.

On Wednesday, five of the seven-member special electoral commission team created to run the repeat elections joined the 47 county returning officers, who double as county election managers, in the second day of a three-day conference at the Safari Club in Nairobi.

The five had acted as county returning officers in the August 8 General Election.

“Massive work is going on. After the timelines were rolled out, different teams are working on the budget, the training manual, reviewing of transport and logistics and the configuration of the elections kits for the fresh poll – all aimed at achieving the same thing,” Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission communications manager Andrew Limo said of the ongoing workshop.

He went on: “The commissioners were, as the conference went on, in a meeting and will be involved in the quality checks.”

In the workshop, the teams have developed 23 questions that the IEBC has been asked to meet in the fresh poll, with each of the agency officers present asked to discuss its viability and its effect on the planned October 17 election.

Further, the team has been working on ways to improve its training materials in preparation for the polls, while at the same time discussing legal compliance in the fresh polls.

In annulling the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta, the Supreme Court in a 4-2 majority decision, faulted the IEBC for not conducting the elections in accordance with the Constitution.

An audit ordered by the Chief Justice David Maraga-led court found massive clerical errors in 42 of the 290 constituencies, among them missing names of the constituency, handwritten names of constituency, lack of security features such as the serial number and the watermark in forms, cases where the IEBC stamp looks different and others where the form runs into several pages.

The seven-member team will be headed by deputy CEO Marjan Hussein Marjan, who had in the August 8 polls led the team that received and validated forms 34B from the 290 constituencies at the national tallying centre in Bomas.

Others picked for the team are Kitui County Returning Officer Albert Gogo to head the ICT team and who will report directly to Mr Chebukati, with his Kisii counterpart Sidney Namulungu picked as head of operations.

The Mombasa County returning officer Nancy Kariuki will head the logistics team, while her Nakuru counterpart Silas Rotich will head the national tallying centre.

Ms Salome Oyugi, who works at the legal office, will head the legal department in the seven-member team.

While it had been thought that the team will replace those in the secretariat that did the same functions, the IEBC on Monday dismissed such notions, saying they were only a dedicated team hived off a massive logistical operations that will encompass the entire commission.

“The CEO has been tasked to assess the implementation challenges that were experienced during the just concluded elections and propose a project implementation framework that is aligned with the existing organisational structure,” Mr Chebukati said on Monday after an IEBC bonding retreat in Naivasha.

On Tuesday Nasa added four of the seven members of the special team to a list of people they want sacked before the fresh polls.

In a list that Nasa called ‘irreducible minimums’ IEBC should meet before the poll, the opposition added the four officials to an earlier list of seven IEBC officials including chief executive Ezra Chiloba.